A small trailing bush reaching about 1 metre in height, it has straggling branches with silky green leaves. The flower is a catkin of up to 2 or 2.5 cm in length, though often shorter.

Photograph the plant in habitat, and details of leaves and shoots

Wet heath and wet grassland.

Flowers April and May.

Perennial.

Widespread but quite local in much of Britain, particularly in central and eastern England.

Scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland, but introduced into a few sites.  In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 3 of the 617 tetrads, but was not recorded in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971).

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)